National Nurses United

4 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G A P R I L | M AY | J U N E 2 0 1 9 MAINE T his spring nurses and other staff at Calais Regional Hospital (CRH) in Calais, Maine, have been very active: In May, hospital employees and community members held a "Vigil for Patient Safety" in downtown Calais to draw attention to patient care conditions and employee treat- ment at CRH. In June, registered nurses and medical laboratory scientists (MLSs)— members of Maine State Nurses Association (MSNA)/National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC)—held a rally and infor- mation picket. Also that month, CRH techni- cal employees voted unanimously to unionize with the MSNA so that they could take collec- tive action with their coworkers to improve standards at Calais Regional. "We're standing up and demanding that CRH management invest in safe patient care, including safe staffing—and also treat its employees fairly," said Hollye Lord, RN. "Right now, the poor working conditions are causing problems with recruitment of new employees and reten- tion of longtime employees, to the detri- ment of patient care conditions. This community deserves better." CRH management decided to close the hospital's OB department in August 2017 without any input from the surrounding community, leaving women and families in a 40-mile radius without adequate OB/GYN care. Employees who took part in the May vigil said they hope community pressure will hold the hospital account- able for prioritizing safe patient care conditions and fair employee treatment. In June, RNs and MLSs at the informa- tional picket and rally at CRH were joined by the hospital's newly unionized technical unit and also members of the United Steel- workers Union, Firemen and Oilers, and the Maine State Educational Association. The RNs and MLSs were protesting the concessionary demands that CRH has been making at the bargaining table, after learning that CRH has been having its best financial year in a decade. If these cutbacks are imple- mented, they could jeopardize the quality of patient care at CRH by making it difficult to recruit new employees or retain experienced ones. Current employees say more than two dozen positions remain unfilled across CRH. "The nurses and medical lab scientists at Calais care about the people they serve, and they don't want to negotiate a contract to the detriment of the hospital," said Congressman Jared Golden. "Certainly, they want to keep their jobs, but it is much deeper than that. They are members of the community and are committed to serving their community and helping their patients. They're not asking for anything new in the contract, just what was in the one they had before. I've called the hospital CEO to express my concern for the community, the hospital, and its nurses. The solution to the hospital's challenges should not come on the backs of its workers." "The hospital is trying to insist on a roughly $1,700 cut in the cash value of our compensation, per employee, per year," said Sarah Curtis, a nurse at CRH. "And that doesn't even count the fact they want to rip our current health insurance protections right out of our contract." "People are leaving this place left and right," said Trudy Gillespie another nurse at CRH. "They can't fill the positions that are being left open. Our community depends on this hospital and we're doing our best to stick it out and continue to provide the best care for all of our patients. But ultimately, if there's no one left to work here, there is no hospital." In light of management's continuing attacks on employees' working conditions, technical employees at CRH voted unani- mously to unionize with the MSNA. "We've watched how the union nurses and medical scientists have stood up for themselves and really for all of us," said Mindy Smith, a radi- ology technologist at CRH and one of the employees who just voted to unionize. "We wanted to have that same kind of voice at work. We are so proud to now be a part of this union with our RN and MLS sisters and brothers, and to have the power to stand up for ourselves, our patients and our commu- nity, just like they do." —Staff report Maine nurses picket and tech staff unionize NEWS BRIEFS

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